Carling’s ‘beer button’ orders beer from the fridge

Carling has launched a ‘beer button’ that sits on your fridge allowing customers to order more beer straight from the supermarket without going online.

The company claimed the move would “revolutionise the online shopping experience” by streamlining the ordering experience and increasing brand loyalty by boosting the visibility of a brand.

The company is working with the five major multiples so that once the “beer button” has been set up and located in a convenience place, it integrates with a consumers’ online shopping account via an app on the shopper’s mobile phone. When the button is pressed, the product is automatically added to the customer’s online shopping list via the smartphone app.

“Once set up, purchases can be made straight from the fridge with a simple press of a button, with no need to go online and search,” parent company Molson Coors said.

“The Carling Beer Button is the first ‘e-commerce button’ to be directly integrated into the UK’s top five online grocery retailers, enabling users to select the retailer of their choice before purchase, ensuring shoppers always get the best deal possible,”

Customer marketing director at Molson Coors Alpesh Mistry, said the ‘beer button” was designed to tackle the increasing problem of brand visibility online and drive both brand and retailer loyalty, pointing to research that shows online customers only see around ten products on a page when shopping online and are unlikely to click through to a second page.

Boosting visibility and convenience would therefore ensure brand loyalty.

The product was developed in collaboration with digital product agency Hi Mum! Said Dad and follows hot on the heels of the UK roll out of wifi-enabled Amazon’s Dash buttons, which automatically allow Amazon Prime customers to re-orders products they have run out of, and have delivered within a day.

So far, Amazon Dash is limited to around 40 household products including big brands laundry and baby care products such as Ariel, Vanish and Gillette. On launching them in the UK last week, director of Amazon Dash Daniel Rausch, said there was “no retail therapy” in buying essentials and it wanted to “take the one-click experience from our website and put it right where people need it most.”

However, now that Carling have come up with a similar concept, it remains to be seen whether – or when – other booze brands will follow suit.